Equestria and the Time Lord Episode 2: The Saddle Arabian Cliche
by The Orwellian Writer
Summary: The Doctor travels with Daring Do to Saddle Arabia in the year 913 C.E. There they find that Ahuizotl, Daring Do's greatest enemy, is the king, and is oppressing the city with his Royal Guard, that have been given terrifying powers. They decide to help, but that's going to be difficult, especially with the secret of Ahuizotl's power being used against them.
1. Prologue: The Unexpected Arrival

Equestria and the Time Lord Episode 2: Daring Do and the Saddle Arabian Cliché

Prologue: The Unexpected Arrival

**=Gaia, Equestria, Saddle Arabia, Town Square, 913 C.E. =**

The iconic sound of the TARDIS rang through the Arabian looking town as it materialized in the back of an alleyway. Shortly after, The Doctor, Romana, and Daring Do stepped out of it. The Doctor looked around, surveying the vast environment around him. "Well it looks like we're probably on the same planet." He said to himself.

Daring Do was still busy surveying the box, still surprised by the inside. Around then, she heard what he said. "Probably? That doesn't reassure me very much, Doctor." She said.

"Oh, relax. According to K9, there's a 94% chance, that we're still on the same planet, only somewhere hotter." He said as he realized how hot it was outside. As he said that, Daring Do and Romana realized the heat around them as well.

Romana followed them over, but the Doctor stopped her. "Wait, Romana!" he said.

"What is it, Doctor?" she asked him.

"I have something for you to do. You know the Library from our dimension?" he asked.

"Yes, I'm familiar with that." She replied.

"Well, there's almost certainly something like that in this dimension. I want you to find it, and use K9 to download the most accurate and up to date history book of every planet that you can find, and then come back here. If I'm going to explore this dimension, I don't want to run in blind, as much as I enjoy it. Meanwhile, I'll be helping Miss Do here get reintegrated into society." He told her.

Romana nodded and stepped into the TARDIS. Suddenly, she realized something. "Did he just say explore this dimension?" She groaned. "Sometimes I think that he has to make everything his problem."

The Doctor and Daring Do watched as the TARDIS dematerialized, and then walked out into the city streets. The doctor could see the place was very Arabian. The ponies surrounding him were wearing Arabian clothes, **everything **was exactly like the nation of Saudi Arabia, which the Doctor had visited several times, except slightly pony-fied.

"Well I'll be, we're in Saddle Arabia!" Daring Do said excitedly.

"Saddle Arabia?" the Doctor asked. "Saddle Arabia? Is every city name on this planet a pony-fied pun of the name of an Earth city? Could you tell me some of the city names on this planet?"

"Baltimare, Fillydelphia, Las Pegasus…" Daring Do listed off.

"Oh, you have got to be kidding me. That sort of weakens the drive to explore this universe, but I suppose I can live with it."

"Let me guess. You're an alien. From outer space. Or more likely, from another dimension entirely. It's become increasingly obvious based on what you and Romana talk about." Daring Do said.

"You're catching on fast. I like it when they do that. Most people would think I'm insane. Well, I am a little insane but that's beside the point." The Doctor said gleefully.

"I guess I just have an inquiring mind. That, and I do think you're a little insane. But, I've been trapped in a forest for 90 years, walked into a box that was bigger on the inside than it was on the outside, and traveled back in time 90 years again. I don't think anything can surprise me ever again." She said dismissively.

"I really, really doubt that." The Doctor said, smiling widely.

Suddenly, Daring Do's eyes widened into a look of surprise, and she galloped away in the direction of whatever surprised her.

The Doctor smiled. "See, I told you!" he yelled after her. He then galloped after her through the wide city streets. When he came to what Daring Do was looking at, he stopped.

It was a statue. The statue depicted a creature that was on all fours, with dog like hind legs, and ape like fore legs. It had a dog like head, except his eyes were positioned over its nose at the end of his snout. It had a monkey like tail with a hand on the end. It wore a regal like collar around its neck and legs, and the whole statue was made of solid gold.

The Doctor wasn't really impressed. "This appears to be more surprising to you than it is to me. It looks exactly like an ahuizotl, a creature from Aztec myth. I'm surprised they would build a statue of it, though. In the Aztec myths, it lived in the water and drowned anybody who got near it, and ripped out the victim's eyes, nails, and teeth."

"Yuck." Daring Do said, disgusted. "Well in my dimension, this is Ahuizotl. He's my worst enemy, and tries to steal all the legendary treasures I find, usually right from my hooves."

"Yikes." The Doctor said. "Well, if he's such a bad guy, then why would there be a golden statue of him in the middle of the city?"

Suddenly there was a gasp behind them "The Royal Guard of the King Ahuizotl!" said a random pony off the street.

"King Ahuizotl?" Daring Do gasped as she and the Doctor turned around.

Walking through the streets were several ponies in black clothes. These black shrouds covered their entire body, with only small slits for their eyes. The Doctor and Daring Do made several other important observations. The ponies all had sand colored skin, as you could see through the slit over their eyes. In place of their pupils were what appeared to be golden flaming embers. Their hooves were** singing** the ground they walked on. The Doctor noted that the back shrouds were what women wore in Saudi Arabia, but he could tell these ponies were not women. They made one more very important observation: These ponies were coming directly for them.

"Daring, run!" the Doctor yelled, and with that, The Doctor and Daring Do took off running, with the Royal Guard of King Ahuizotl in hot pursuit.


	2. Chapter 1: The Library

Chapter 1: The Library

**=Gaia, Equestria, Saddle Arabia, Town Streets, 913 C.E =**

The Doctor and Daring Do were running for their lives. Not that this was really new to them, but the shrouded Royal Guard were directly behind them, and they were gaining fast.

"Stop or be burned by the rule of the King Ahuizotl!" The Royal Guard yelled ominously.

"I have the feeling both of those options leads to the same thing, so no thank you, we'll just keep running!" The Doctor yelled back, obviously not caring that they were fuming. And not just fuming angrily, but literally fuming with heat.

The Doctor and Daring Do kept running, and looked behind them to see if they had lost their followers. To their surprise, the Royal Guard had stopped dead. Then they realized something else. It was getting even hotter out. They looked at the Royal Guard, and saw that their ember like eyes were turning an orange color as they glowed with heat energy.

"The Burning of the King is brought once again! Everypony run!" a random pony yelled in a panicked voice. Everypony scattered around, running for their lives and screaming. Before the Doctor and Daring Do could react, a huge surge of a heat wave emanated from the Royal Guard's bodies that rushed throughout the city streets, with all the ponies there screaming as it washed over them. The Doctor and Daring Do were knocked backwards by the heat wave that, even though most of it has passed by, still felt like it was boiling their skin.

When it was over, The Doctor, who was partially unconscious, looked around his surroundings. They weren't good. All the ponies who were unable to get very far from the Royal Guard before they detonated were now charred, blackened skeletons. Others were severely burned, but looked like they were still alive. He noticed that a couple of the Royal Guard had exploded into piles of sand, with the ones who hadn't looking at them forlornly before they vanished into a blurred haze. Anything wooden in the area was at least partially on fire, if not completely ablaze. Daring Do had fallen unconscious, and her head was bleeding from a small cut from her head.

The Doctor felt ready to collapse, and only one thought rang through his head as he too lost consciousness: _I will find whoever did this._

After he lost consciousness, another Royal Guard appeared out of nowhere and picked him and carried him on his back, with another following suit for Daring Do, as they disappeared once again.

**=The Library, Universal History Wing, Hall 1, 1,453,289 C.E. =**

The obviously long abandoned and dimly lit hallways of the History wing of the Library blew around slightly as the TARDIS materialized. Shortly after, Romana and K9 stepped out, with a long pipe connecting K9 to the TARDIS console.

"Okay K9, are you ready?" she asked, bending down to his small height.

"Affirmative, Mistress." K9 said.

"Good. There's a computer terminal right over there. I trust if will be easy to hack into it?" she said as she pointed out the computer terminal she was talking about.

"Affirmative." K9 said as he wheeled over to the terminal, with his eye extending up to the terminal and activating it. "Please wait a moment, Mistress. Locating the information you seek will take time, as the terminal is not in good condition."

Romana nodded and paced for a few moments. "Complete, Mistress." K9 said. "Good." Romana said. "Now download all information pertaining to the history of this universe."

K9's ears whirred as he downloaded the specific information. "Complete, Mistress." He said. "Mistress." He said suddenly.

"What is it, K9?" Romana asked.

"A minor oddity has been found that you may want to examine." K9 said.

"I suppose I should look into it. Alright, use the link to the TARDIS console to put the information in book form in the TARDIS library." She said. K9 complied, and after a short period of time, she went back into the TARDIS, briefly acknowledging the Library as they left if behind.

Romana walked through the halls until managed to make her way to the TARDIS library. She entered, and made her way to the new section that had just been created. There, she saw something completely unexpected.

"The Daring Do book series? They wrote a whole series of books about our new friend Daring Do? I'll go dematerialize the TARDIS and put it in drift mode so I'll have time to read all this!" she declared as she walked out of the library."

**=TARDIS, TARDIS Library, All of Time and Space at Once =**

After quite a long period of time of reading, Romana was both worried and confused.

For one thing, why was Daring Do a character in a book series that was considered fictional? She knew full well that Daring Do was a real pony. Although, she could see how ponies looking at this like it was a fictional story would find it amusing. It even seemed like a big cliché of the Indiana Jones series she had been told about by the Doctor. But if everything in it was absolutely true, than it was a cause for worry! All the stuff in this book would be very dangerous to those around this kind of danger. "I better get back to the Doctor. God knows what kind of deadly danger he is in by now." She declared as she headed for the console room.

**=Gaia, Equestria, Saddle Arabia, Town Square, 913 C.E. =**

The TARDIS materialized in the middle of the same alleyway it had left. Romana stepped out, but gasped we she saw what was waiting for her.

It was the black shrouded ponies that were the Royal Guard of the King Ahuizotl, although she didn't even know this yet. One of them stepped forward, and, before Romana could even react or try to stop them, he pressed his hoof on her forehead. A searing heat ran through Romana's body and she collapsed, unconscious. The pony grabbed her, hoisted him on his back, and took her away to wherever they had taken the Doctor and Daring Do.


	3. Chapter 2: The Dungeon of Sand

Chapter 2: The Dungeon of Sand

**=Gaia, Equestria, Somewhere Deep in the San Palomino Desert, 913 C.E. =**

Romana awoke feeling very hot. So hot it blurred her vision. It took a few minutes for everything to come back into focus. When it did, she could see the Doctor, who was fully awake and was pacing the floor. She also saw Daring Do, who was not awake and looked like she was in a very poor condition, such as a cut on her head that looked like she had gotten it from being thrown backwards, and her whole body seemed slightly singed. Come to think of it, so was the Doctor's. "What happened to you two?" she asked him.

"We were on the edge of a massive thermal explosion." The Doctor replied. "Now don't bother me I'm trying to think."

"How did you get in the middle of a massive thermal explosion?" She asked him, obviously confused.

"Oh, some very creepy ponies wearing black all over their bodies chased us through Saddle Arabia and then let off a huge thermal explosion that ravaged the town and knocked us out cold. It killed a few of them." The Doctor said dismissively.

Romana's eyes widened. "So what are we going to do now?" she asked.

"Think of a really brilliant and amazingly clever plan, wake up Daring, escape, and defeat the evil villain. Nothing out of the ordinary. Business as usual." The Doctor said as he continued pacing the floor.

"Okay, I can't argue with that last sentence, but what is our brilliant plan going to be?" Romana asked.

"Oh Romana, you know these things always come to me at the last second. I'm just pacing to see if just once I can break that chain, but it doesn't seem to be working. So, what's your brilliant plan?" he said.

Romana rolled her eyes. "How about we start with the 'wake up Daring Do part of the plan'" she said in a slightly annoyed tone.

"Good idea. She has faced our adversary before, so she'll be quite a bit of help." The Doctor said as he knelt down to Daring Do's position. "I might need to give up a few years to heal her injuries, but I doubt I'm going to fall off a control tower or something like that which I might be able to survive without regenerating before this anytime soon." With that, the Doctor put his hooves on Daring Do, who glowed golden as all her injuries sealed up.

Romana was still a little confused. "She's faced our adversary before? I think you need to catch me up a little, Doctor."

"Sure, we've got a little time before she wakes up. I'll tell you what I know." The Doctor said as he sat down, still slightly exhausted.

As Daring Do woke up and came to full alertness, the Doctor told Romana what little she had told him about their enemy, Ahuizotl. As she woke up, she looked around, realized their surroundings, and began to fathom what was happening fully. As the both of them completed what they were they were currently doing, they heard a noise that was coming from the other side of the wall of the dungeon with walls that appeared to be made of sand they were in. The noise sounded exactly like somepony coughing.

"Well, who wants to see what that was?" The Doctor said excitedly. Without waiting for an answer of any kind, The Doctor rushed over to the wall and began pushing on it. After a few minutes of pushing, the wall seemed to grow softer and The Doctor, who was totally hot expecting that, fell through it as it re solidified.

"Doctor!" Romana yelled as she and Daring Do jumped up and pushed on the wall. After a few minutes, the wall once again softened and they fell through into whatever was on the other side.

The other room was pretty much exactly the same as the room they had been held in. There was only one difference. On one wall, one of the Royal Guard was chained to the wall. He was in full uniform, but his was ragged and ripped. The Doctor was there, examining the Guard chained to the wall.

The Guard's vision was exactly that of a thermal camera, reading the hottest and coldest parts of the room, and of the Doctor. "So, what's your name?" the Doctor asked as he continued looking at the Guard.

"My name no longer matters, but it was once Sun Rider." The Guard said sadly.

"Nice name." the Doctor said as he nodded. "So why are you in prison?"

"I tried to use my powers against the King Ahuizotl. I waiting until I was fully trusted, and then I attacked." Sun Rider said weakly.

"Okay. But why are you still wearing that hood if you're a prisoner?" The Doctor asked as he pulled of the mask Sun Rider was wearing. The Doctor's eyes and the eyes of Romana and Daring Do all widened when they saw their fellow prisoner's appearance.

Sun Rider's face, and apparently his whole body, was completely dried out. He had a sand colored mane, a frazzled grayish-brown colored mane, but worse, his skin pretty much looked like a lake after it had been through a one thousand year drought in the middle of the blazing sun. It was cracked and singed and scarred, and it horrified the Doctor that this must be what every member of the Royal Guard looked like.

"I see. Well, we're here to get you out." The Doctor said, still a bit shocked. He punched through the chains that had kept Sun Rider confined (Which was very easy as the chains were made of sand.) and pulled him up. Suddenly something fell on his nose that made him sneeze. It was a bit of sand that must have fallen from the ceiling.

"Oh no…" Sun Rider sad, his ember-like eyes widening in horror.

"What is it? What's happening?" Daring Do said, knowing it was nothing good.

"Secondary defense mechanism if the chains are broken." Sun Rider explained.

The ceiling of sand was beginning to dump sand all over them, and it was quickly beginning to bury them alive. The dungeon was collapsing, and there was no way to get out.


	4. Chapter 3: Trek Trough the Desert

Chapter 3: Trek Through the Desert

**=Gaia, Equestria, Sand Dungeons, Deep in the San Palomino Desert, 913 C.E. =**

"Ugh, Not again!" The Doctor said in an annoyed voice as he kicked away the sand that was piling up around his hooves.

"What do you mean again?" Daring Do asked as she did the same thing the Doctor was doing.

"Sandminer Storm Mine 4, 2881. I was inspecting a dead body that been strangled by a robot (I'll tell you the whole story at a later time) and then the room started filling up with sand and buried me. Right now we're underground, so I don't think that I can use a blowpipe to stick out of the sand this time." The Doctor said, getting in to the memory.

"Is nothing new to you?" Daring Do asked him.

"Probably not, although I've never been in said situation this way. I should do it more often. It's very exiting." The Doctor said in an exited tone. Then he looked at Daring Do and smiled like a little filly.

"What?" Daring Do asked, not knowing what to think of him.

"You have wings." The Doctor said, still grinning like a madman.

"Yeah I do. So what?" Daring Do asked, still slightly confused.

"That means you're a Pegasus. Huh, never thought those things actually existed. Anyway, that means you can fly. You can fly up. You can fly upwards to the ceiling of a building." He said, continuing his freaky grin.

"I don't see what that has to do with any… Oh yeah…" She said in realization. She extended her wings, grabbed the Doctor, and flew up to the ceiling of the dungeon room. When they reached the top of the room, Daring Do pushed on it, quickly slipping through the ceiling with The Doctor in tow. The Doctor stuck his upper half through, holding out his hooves for Romana and Sun Rider. Romana managed to get out of the sand piling around them and actually managed to stand up on the rising sand line. Sun Rider followed suit, and quickly they jumped up to grab the Doctor's hooves, and albeit with some difficulty, The Doctor managed to pull them both up through the dungeon ceiling and into the desert it was built in. They watched as the hole closed up and the whole dungeon became nothing more than a bunch of sand in the middle of the desert, where there is nothing but sand, sand, sand…

"Well, we better get a move on if we want to survive until we make it to the city." The Doctor said cheerfully.

His three friends, who were still sweating from the recent escapade, glared at him.

"Okay, how about I call K9? He'll help us quite a lot in this whole endeavor." He said as he pulled off his pocket and began to root around for his robotic dog whistle. He pulled something out, and then looked disappointed. "Sonic screwdriver, no…" He said as he pulled out a bag. "Jelly babies, jelly babies, jelly babies, jelly babies, jelly babies, jelly babies, jelly babies, jelly babies, jelly babies, jelly babies, jelly babies, jelly babies, jelly babies…" The Doctor listed off as he continued pulling more things out of his bigger on the inside pockets.

Romana groaned as she realized where this was going.

"Jelly babies, jelly babies, jelly babies, cricket ball, magnifying glass, gemstone, egg timer, lock pick, magician's cane, football rattle, instant camera, breathing tube, galactic passport, book, book, yo-yo (Good for taking gravity readings), jelly babies, ah, here we are, dog whistle." He said as he finally pulled out what he was looking for.

All three of his fellow stuck in the desert friends sighed in relief.

The Doctor blew on it, with no sound that audible to human or pony ears coming out of it. He smiled, and then began the tedious task of putting all the stuff he had taken out of his pocket back into his pocket. "Onwards!" he said as he began walking through the desert towards Saddle Arabia.

"Uh, we're three miles into the desert, and Saddle Arabia is that way." Sun Rider said as he pointed in a different direction to that which the Doctor was going in.

The Doctor walked back on his tracks for a moment, and he began walking in the direction that Sun Rider was pointing in.

Once again, all three of his friends groaned.

**=Gaia, Equestria, San Palomino Desert, 2 ½ miles to Saddle Arabia, 913 C.E. =**

The Doctor, Romana, Daring Do, and Sun Rider had barely walked half a mile and they were already exhausted and hot. The Doctor had wrapped his iconic long scarf around his head like he had seen in all the lost in the middle of the desert movies ever made, and smiled at this cliché. Romana, all though thinking it stupid, had decided to do the same with her pink scarf.

"You know, I can fly pretty fast. I could get to Saddle Arabia a lot faster than just walking." Daring Do said as she continued walking.

"Yes, but what about the rest of us? We can't fly, so what are we going to do besides just walking?" The Doctor said, his loud voice lightly toned down by the heat in the desert.

"You know she does certainly act a lot like she does in her book series." Romana whispered to the Doctor so nopony else could hear what she was saying.

"What book series?" The Doctor whispered back in a confused tone of voice.

And with that, Romana told the Doctor all about the book series she had found on The Library, how it was considered fictional, and how she didn't understand why as he knew full well that Daring Do was a real live pony.

"Hmm, the mystery deepens." The Doctor said, becoming deep in thought.

Then they all saw something. The area about a mile in front of them was becoming especially hazy. "Uh oh." The Doctor said in recognition. Then, at least twenty of the Royal Guard of King Ahuizotl appeared in front of them.

"Manipulating the heat around them to look invisible. Clever trick." Romana said. Then she saw the Royal Guard glow with orangeish golden energy.

"Oh no." Sun Rider said. "Don't worry, we are out of their range."

A huge thermal explosion once again erupted from the Royal Guards. This time however, their wave kicked up a large sandstorm that moved in their direction.

"Oh so that was their plan." Daring Do said as they could all do nothing to stop the sand storm. It washed over them, and before they knew it they could see nothing as everything a millimeter away lost visibility.


	5. Chapter 4: The Palace of the Reveal

Chapter 4: The Palace of the Reveal

**=Gaia, Equestria, Saddle Arabia, King Ahuizotl's Palace, 1003 C.E. =**

As the sandstorm surrounding them began to clear, they saw they were in a drastically different area than the one they were just in. The place they were in was a throne room in what was obviously a palace. The Doctor noted it also had very Arabian decorations as well. They all seriously doubted that this place had been built in the last 5 seconds, so they became pretty certain that…

"You know, call me crazy, but I think we were teleported here." The Doctor said suddenly.

All three of his friends looked at him with a blank expression.

"We sort of figured that out already, Doctor." Daring Do said.

"I knew that full well, but I just like to be the one to say it and sound incredibly intelligent and such." The Doctor said with a slightly smug expression.

All three of his friends stared at him again, but this time it was with more of an annoyed expression.

"So, Daring Do, we meet once again. But this time you and your friends have fallen into your doom!" said a voice Daring Do had heard many times before. The Doctor had never heard it, but he knew the voice was saying a spin off of the biggest bad guy cliché known to man (Although maybe not to pony) and he could pretty much figure out whom the voice belonged to. They all turned to see a figure that matched that of the statue they had seen in Town Square. It was Ahuizotl.

"Nice to meet you." The Doctor said. "I am honored to meet the man/ dog/ whatever you are that's been burning down and destroying large portions of the city you are in charge of." He said that last sentence in a rather sarcastic tone.

"I see you have much faith in my political methods." Ahuizotl said in a mocking tone.

"Ooh, that appears to be one of the only original I have heard from a villain today. Congratulations." The Doctor said as he tried to figure out how to give a thumbs up sign with hooves. In doing so, he idly looked at the hand at the end of Ahuizotl's tail. He then saw that Ahuizotl was wearing a ring with a golden uncut crystal in it on said hand.

"What's that there?" the Doctor asked as he pointed to the ring he was talking about.

"Nothing you'd care about at all." Ahuizotl said as he looked at the ring and pretended it was nothing special or important to him.

"Well, actually I think it is. You see it belongs to you. You are the bad guy. We want to defeat you. Thusly anything that could be used as help in said endeavor is something I would indeed care, and that's not to mention all my friends here." The Doctor said.

"You really believe you actually know what you're doing?" Ahuizotl said as he motioned for some of the guards.

"Oh, I absolutely know exactly what I'm doing." The Doctor said as he tried to continue stalling for time.

Two of the Royal Guard came in prepared to apprehend the four enemies of the King. All of a sudden, a red ray hit one of the guards, and he fell to the floor, stunned. Before the other could react to this, he was hit by another stun ray and fell to the floor, also stunned.

"Good show, K9!" The Doctor yelled happily. Romana was also very happy to see the metal dog.

"Affirmative, Master." K9 said as he wheeled into the room.

"What is that?" Sun Rider said in surprise.

"That is my dog, Sun Rider. Nothing that can hurt you. Unless I tell him to." The Doctor said, still very happy to see K9, who had arrived just in time.

"Doctor!" Ahuizotl yelled in anger.

"You know, he's only said 3 sentences to me, and he's annoying me." The Doctor said to no one of particular interest.

"Negative, Master. Subject identified as Ahuizotl has said 4 sentences directed at you." K9 corrected.

"Oh just stun him for me, K9." The Doctor said with a little bit of his happiness diminished slightly.

K9 complied and shot his stun ray at Ahuizotl, causing him to slump backwards.

"That ought to keep him out of our way for about 3 hours. Come on, let's go." The Doctor said as he began to walk away.

"Do you even know what we need to do next?" Daring Do asked him.

"I hadn't thought that far ahead, no." The Doctor said as he continued on his way.

Daring Do, Romana, and Sun Rider all rolled their eyes.

"I suppose we could stalk around the palace for information of some sort." Romana said.

"Ah yes, that's good, that's very good." The Doctor said as he walked out the door, with his three friends going with him.

**=Gaia, Equestria, Saddle Arabia, King Ahuizotl's Palace, Palace Hallways, 1003 C.E. =**

The Doctor had gotten several feet from the throne room without being attacked by any guards, which he took as a very good sign. They also hadn't accidentally set off any traps, which he took as another good sign. "I do hope we find what we're looking for soon. I just know something is going to go wrong."

"Based on experience, you're almost certainly correct." Romana said.

Then they spotted a door. Now it wasn't any special door. It looked exactly like any other door in the building. But The Doctor and Romana's Time Lord senses detected a very strong energy signal. So they opened the door and went inside.

The inside of the room was lined with walls that appeared to be made of gray white crystals, and there was a stream of Golden energy going directly through the center of the room, that appeared to go through the door they just came through, and out the door that was on the other side of the room.

"Ah, I see what this room is. The energy signature comes in the door; the crystals around the room strengthen the signal as it leaves the room. There must be many of these outposts along this signal, putting it back to full strength whenever it gets weakened as it travels to wherever it ends." Romana deduced.

"So all we need to do is to follow the signal to the end of the trail!" Sun Rider said. Daring Do seemed a little annoyed that he had beaten her to the punch, but nodded anyway.

"Brilliant observation Romana, and you're exactly correct Sun Rider!" The Doctor said. "Now let's go!"

"Affirmative, Master." K9 said as the Doctor ran to the other door and whipped it open.

Behind the door was at least 157 Royal Guard directly in front of them in an attack position

"Uh oh." Daring Do said.


	6. Chapter 5: Journey to the Source

Chapter 5: The Journey to the Source

**=Gaia, Equestria, Saddle Arabia, Exit of the Palace Grounds, 913 C.E =**

"Well, we may be in a tad bit of trouble." The Doctor said as he walked up to the very many Royal Guard that were directly in front of them. "If any of them were moving." He tapped one of them to prove his point. "They appear to be stone dead, but you can tell they are fully alive." He pulled his sonic screwdriver out. He activated it and the energy signature they were tracking appeared faintly, appearing to connect to the Guards and pass right through them in a weakened state. "Hibernation like state. The energy signal is so strengthened by that outpost through that door that some of it can be deposited into these Guards and recharge them and still have enough to make it to the next outpost. This attack position is simply to scare off anypony who makes it this far."

"And at the end of the trail is the place where Ahuizotl infuses a collected cloud of the energy into the Royal Guard that gives them their power in the first place." Sun Rider added.

"Which would make it even more important to get to the end of the trail. If we disrupted it, it would take down this whole operation." Daring Do noted.

"Affirmative." K9 confirmed.

"Well, we better go then. Based on the angle of the trail, the infusion chamber of whatever they call it would be deep in the desert, probably even deeper than the desert sand dungeon we were held in. That would be pretty far in, so we have to get there soon." Romana noted.

"Oh goody, back through the desert." Daring Do said sarcastically.

"Come on, I don't know how long it will take for the Guards to be fully recharged, and when they are, they will all wake up." The Doctor said as he moved through the masses of the Guard, subtly bumping into one of them.

Suddenly, the one he bumped into raised his head and started stalking for them.

"Of course." Sun Rider sighed.

The Doctor grabbed onto the Royal Guard and began pulling him away, trying to stop him from waking up any of the other Guard. A blast of fire came through The Guard's mouth, burning off the bit of the mask that was covering it. The Doctor barely managed to avoid getting hit. "Of courts they can breathe fire!" he groaned. "Why wouldn't they be able to breathe fire? Isn't there anything heat related that these guys can't do?" Just as suddenly as he had awoken, the Royal Guard he had grabbed fell to the floor, with sand pouring out from the folds of his robe.

"What happened to him?" Sun Rider asked.

"He woke up before he was energized fully. His body collapsed. He's dead." The Doctor said as he walked away from the body, looking at it in a sad way.

His friends didn't answer. They just eyed the body a similar way as they followed him to wherever the trail would lead them to.

**=Gaia, Equestria, San Palomino Desert, 1 Mile Down the Trail, 1003 C.E =**

The Doctor, Romana, Daring Do, and Sun Rider were taking turns holding the sonic screwdriver to make certain they would not lose the trail on their way. The Doctor had fallen back a little, as it was not his turn, and decided to give Sun Rider some news.

"Sun Rider." He said.

"Yes?" Sun Rider replied.

"I have something to tell you, but you most certainly won't like it very much." The Doctor said.

"I can take it, whatever it is. I will forge on despite the risk." Sun Rider said.

"When that Guard who was disconnected from the energy trail died, I realized something. The power given to shakes up your cellular structure. The more given to you, the more unstable you are. Except for Ahuizotl, he has the original source of the power, so he'll be fine. The power is currently holding the molecules in place like glue. But if the power was disrupted, nine tenths of the Royal Guard, including you, would have massive cellular collapse and crumble into dust." He said sadly.

Sun Rider nodded in a conceded sort of way. "I have never visited the city of Canterlot, but I have heard that there, the Royal Guard take an oath to protect both their princess and their fellow ponies. My Royal Guard has no such oath. They only live to protect their King, no one else. But I believe that their oath is truly the one that is correct. My fellow ponies must live. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, and if I am to die to help these ponies survive, than I shall let it be so." He said bravely.

The Doctor nodded at this with a sad face. Sun Rider would face death. Sometimes, this was more than he expected of himself.

**=Gaia, Equestria, San Palomino Desert, 2 1/3 Miles Down the Trail, 1003 C.E. =**

The Doctor and his friends came to the next outpost, and realized it was leading to a tunnel under the ground. They entered the tunnel and began walking through it, hoping it led directly to the end of the trail.

"Come on, I think we're nearly there." Daring Do said as she continued through the tunnel, which was well held up by its white crystal lining.

"It feels like there's some kind of space warp through this tunnel, manipulating distance so the energy was less distance go. In fact, I think we've gone much farther than we think we have." The Doctor said.

Just then, they came to the exit door.

"I suppose we'll find out soon."

They went through the door into a large room that looked like it was the inside of a hollowed out pyramid. The trail, larger than ever, let off into a massive ball of the energy that was fluctuating wildly, to the point where it could easily take down the whole pyramid if it wasn't released into a body every now and then.

"So that's the only reason he has the Royal Guard. He could do all these things himself, except he feels he can use the ponies whose lives he destroyed." The Doctor said grimly.

"A brilliant deduction again, Doctor." Said Ahuizotl's voice as he appeared in the middle of the room as a haze cleared. "And now I have you all here. Daring Do, The Doctor, his female friend, and my escaped rouge Guard. And now, I shall destroy you all."


	7. Chapter 6: The Trap is Set, The Game Won

Chapter 6: The Trap is Set and the Game is Won

**=Gaia, Equestria, San Palomino Desert, The God Pyramid, 913 C.E. =**

"How did you get here so long before we did?" The Doctor asked.

"I simply made another distance warp when I woke up that directly brought me here." Ahuizotl replied.

"And I suppose the signal leads to that energy ball from the original source of the power, which would be the ring on your tail. I figured that much out from the moment I saw it." The Doctor said.

"You remain very intelligent to this day, and this moment. I think I'll toy with you a little before I simply kill you." Ahuizotl sneered.

And with that, all five of the ponies (including K9) began shooting backwards in different directions as large walls rose from the ground around them.

"You are in a labyrinth, but not a maze." Ahuizotl's voice told all of them. "There are four clear passageways to my location from tour four corners of the pyramid. Unfortunately for you, the odds of reaching me before I pop your dog open as he reaches critical heat are vary slim, I'm afraid." Then the voice stopped.

"Wait!" The Doctor yelled. But it was too late. The Doctor advanced forward carefully. He knew the pyramid wasn't very big, and he knew that Ahuizotl wasn't lying when he said that the path to his location was clear, so he must've meant traps.

He stepped carefully as he tried not to set off any of the multiple traps. He wouldn't be able to disable them with his sonic screwdriver, as tracking the signal had depleted the battery power. He walked forward steadily, but the traps went off anyway.

Two Royal Guard appeared in front of him, but these ones were wearing white robes made to look like mummy bandages, and had golden cuffs over their neck and upper chest.

The Doctor sighed as he walked up to them. "It is a good thing I'm wearing a fedora right now." He said as sort of an insiders joke. "Come to think of it, it was a good thing I was wearing a fedora back in the Pyramid of Mars. All those traps and riddles were very Indiana Jones."

The Guards approached him with the intention to attack. "I hope I carried something over from my third incarnation." The Doctor sighed, knowing he didn't have time to talk his way out of the situation. And with that, he rushed directly at the guard at his left and grabbed him, flipping him over his shoulder and landed him on top of the other Guard, who he bucked to make sure he was unconscious.

"Well that was easy." The Doctor said as he smiled and walked off.

Elsewhere, Daring Do had made the same deduction as the Doctor about the traps due to previous experience. She was actually kind of frustrated that she hadn't seen anything yet or heard anything yet.

She kicked a wall with her foreleg slightly in her frustration. "Ugh, why won't anything happen?" she asked.

With that, the wall she kicked fell over, and the other wall fell over 2 seconds later and crashed into the next one and held it in place, forming a sort of a narrow triangle around her. Then there was a sucking noise, and then she realized: The passageway was sucking out the air around her.

She began crawling through as fast as she could, desperate to reach the end before she suffocated.

Elsewhere once more, Romana had figured out about the traps due to simple common sense. "Poor K9. Always getting severely damaged." She mused to herself. "I hope we all manage to make it in time."

Then, suddenly, she could feel the place becoming a massive distance warp. She tried to walk, but found that it was difficult to get one step forward. It felt like interspatial quicksand. This wasn't really meant to harm her, but it was meant to slow her down quite a deal. She attempted to jump out of it and get forward, but it didn't get her very far. She kept doing it, trying to get to the end as quick as possible.

In the final passageway, Sun Rider had figured out about the traps due to the fact that he understood the mind of the King Ahuizotl. He frowned. He wouldn't be King for much longer if he could help it.

Then sand began pouring from over the walls and piling up over him specifically. He made a heat burst to try to get it off, but this just made the sand harden into glass around him. He then knew that he wouldn't be able to use his powers against this trap. He would have to use strength, which he didn't have very much of. Using all his strength, he pushed through the glass and ran as fast as he could to the end of his passageway, ignoring the sand that shot at wherever he was standing.

In the passage The Doctor was in, he had made it to the end of his passageway without much trouble. He saw the door to the center of the pyramid, but he could tell it was locked. He went up to it. It appeared that you needed to solve some kind of puzzle to open the door. He examined it. "Hmm, it appears to be a simple rearrange the squares to fit a certain image kind of game. In this case, you need to arrange it into a straight wire so you can run an electrical charge through it to open the door. Should be very easy."

And it was. He had it open in about two minutes. He through to went where Ahuizotl was cooking K9 in his casing with his powers. Ahuizotl stopped, however, when he saw the Doctor. At this, he simply kicked K9 away. "So you made it here first. It appears I have no need to wait for your friends to reach their ends of the labyrinth." He snapped the fingers on the end of his tail and three doors opened and Romana, Daring Do, and Sun Rider popped out, all looking very exhausted.

Ahuizotl looked smug. Sun Rider looked up at him, angered. He breathed a blast of fire and shot it at the ring on Ahuizotl's tail hand, causing the gem in it to fall out and crack, with golden gas seeping out of the crack.

"What did you do?" Ahuizotl said in shock and anger as he picked up the gem. "You've destroyed it!"

"Yes, it appears I did." Sun Rider said.

Ahuizotl threw the gem directly into the energy ball, which flared up and got bigger.

"Oh no!" The Doctor yelled as he ran over to it.

"What is it? What's wrong?" Daring Do asked.

"You know how we're in a desert?" The Doctor asked.

"Yes…" Daring Do said.

"Imagine this entire planet as a desert…" The Doctor said grimly.

"Oh…" Daring Do said in fear. "Well how do we stop it?"

"I have no idea." The Doctor said, conceding. "This adventure sort of reminds me of the Pyramid of Mars. Especially how that space-time tunnel was a lot like the distance warps… THE DISTANCE WARPS!"

Everyone figured out what he meant to do. On of them figured out how to do it. Sun Rider looked directly at The Doctor. The Doctor looked at him sadly and nodded.

Sun Rider stepped up to the power source and extended his forehooves, allowing streams of golden energy to connect to him.

"What are you doing?" Ahuizotl said angrily.

Sun Rider just glared at him and opened a large distance warp right behind him, which almost instantly sucked him in. "Noooooooooooooo…" he cried as he was shot across the world.

Sun Rider used the power to open an even larger distance warp, with a portion of outer space being seen on the other side. He detached the ball of power from his body, letting it be sucked thousands of light years away in mere seconds.

The ball exploded in a powerful burst of energy that closed down the distance warp and left the explosion behind.

Sun Rider himself fell to the ground, his body collapsing into ashes in mere seconds.

The Doctor, Romana, and Daring Do looked at the ash pile sadly. It was over. There was nothing more that they could do.


	8. Chapter 7: As Time Moves On

Chapter 7: As Time Moves On

**=Gaia, Equestria, Saddle Arabia, Town Square, 913 C.E. =**

The Doctor, Daring Do, Romana, and K9 made their way back into the city of Saddle Arabia, where there was still panic and confusion over recent events. Nopony knew that their tyrannical king had been defeated, and it would probably be a while before anypony believed it once they got word of it.

"So that's it then, huh? We won." Daring Do said, still slightly shocked by recent events.

"Yes, I should think so." The Doctor said.

"What will end up happening to Saddle Arabia?" she asked.

"It will take time, but then they realize that there is no more King Ahuizotl. No more Royal Guard. No more terror. They'll freak out, try to avoid the truth because it's all they've known for probably months. Then they'll get over themselves and move on. Like time. Time always moves on. They'll form a better political system. Probably begin to reconnect with the rest of Equestria. You know, put this behind them." The Doctor said as he continued walking.

"What will happen to Ahuizotl? Where did he go?" Daring Do asked.

"Not quite certain, but he'll survive. You'll most definitely be seeing him again. He'll try to duplicate the power that he found in the form of the gem on his ring, but I don't think he'll be finding it anywhere on Equestria, or anywhere on the planet, for that matter." The Doctor said.

"And that's how he took power in the first place, I'm guessing? The gem in his ring?" Daring Do asked.

"Yes, that's right. It must have gotten its heat and sand related powers from the fact it was here in the desert. Absorbing its properties. Makes me curious about where it came from in the first place. Not from this planet of course, but no clues other than that. I suppose that I'll find the answer eventually." The Doctor said.

"What will you do now?" Daring Do asked.

"Me and Romana have been very excited about exploring this new dimension, it should be very fun to see things entirely different than our dimension." The Doctor said excitedly.

"Have 'we' really been that excited?" Romana asked sarcastically.

"Absolutely. I don't think we'll need the randomizer in this dimension. Pretty sure the Black Guardian dosen't know how to find us here." He said.

They walked up and then went into the TARDIS, where the Doctor seemed quite happy to be back inside his time traveling home. He began the delicate operation of removing the randomizer with hooves, with Romana assisting.

After that was done, the Doctor walked up to Daring Do. "And what I'm asking is, do you want to go too?" he asked.

"Huh?" Daring Do asked in return.

"You're an archeologist, aren't you? There's so much more than just Equestria, or even just this planet to see." He said back.

Daring Do thought about this for a moment, and then began to smile. "Okay, fine. Sounds promising. But as an archeologist, I'm sure you know what I want to go, where in time, I mean."

"I absolutely do." The Doctor said. Then he turned to the console, and grinned. "TO THE FUTURE!" he yelled as he began to dematerialize the TARDIS.

"WHAT? NO! YOU DID THAT ON PURPOSE!" Daring Do yelled.

The Doctor answered by laughing wildly as the TARDIS dematerialized. Romana, not being able to help it, laughed too. The TARDIS dematerialized completely, its next destination unknown.

**=Gaia, Equestria, San Palomino Desert, The God Pyramid, 913 C.E. =**

In the already ruined remains of the pyramid where Ahuizotl had made his base, the remains of the gem from the ring were laying on the floor, now a white, dead color.

A silver robot began wheeling towards it. This one was incredibly small, and looked somewhat like a robotic silverfish, only bigger and with larger eyes and sharp teeth. Across the floor it went until it came to a stop in front of the gem, and began to scan it.

After finding nothing, it slinked away. "Cybermat 1264 has come up negative. The energy signal was dead before we could reach it." A monotone, slightly electronic voice dictated as the little silver robot shimmered and disappeared. "The search for another shard will continue. The Cyber-Controller will free from the pit." The voice then stopped, and the sound of a spaceship lifting off cold be heard in the sky.

To be continued in Episode 3.


End file.
